In the last five months, I have had so many new experiences it would be hard to list them all. I have grown as an individual as well as in the work setting. I feel that I’m much more qualified for positions now, as my resume has grown immensely. I also feel more confident in tasks that I’m given, since I now have the experience. Some new skills I’ve gained are: plant identification, monitoring skills, GIS, driving ATV’s, seed collection, voucher collection, data collection and the list goes on. A learning experience that stands out to me is when our group did fire rehab monitoring. Fires are not as prevalent in the Midwest, so I thought it was such an interesting experience. I found it interesting that there is so much involved in monitoring areas after a fire, so I’m happy that I was able to be a part of it. I felt it was most rewarding when I started learning the flora in the West. Since the plants are very different in the Midwest, I had to learn a whole new set of vegetation that I was working with. This internship made me realize that I want to work with plants after this experience, and I will potentially be going back to graduate school.

Well I’ve been here for approximately 4 months now, and I’m really starting to love the West. This internship is giving me a good feel for the native plants out here, as well as the non-native. The past few weeks we have been doing a lot of seed collection for the Seeds of Success program. This is sometimes harder than it seems, because you need to be in the right place at the right time to collect the seeds. Also, I have been herbiciding the invasive whitetop, Lepidium draba, for the past few weeks. Whitetop is definitely a problem species out here because of its ease of growing in poor conditions as well as speed of growth. We initially went in to cut down the white top to the roots, which hurts the plants. After a few weeks we go back and spray with the herbicide to hit it again, in hopes of eradication. The next few weeks we will be doing some intense fire-rehab monitoring so I hope to learn a lot in this time.

Amber Kowal

Well I’ve been here for approximately 4 months now, and I’m really starting to love the West. This internship is giving me a good feel for the native plants out here, as well as the non-native. The past few weeks we have been doing a lot of seed collection for the Seeds of Success program. This is sometimes harder than it seems, because you need to be in the right place at the right time to collect the seeds. Also, I have been herbiciding the invasive whitetop, Lepidium draba, for the past few weeks. Whitetop is definitely a problem species out here because of its ease of growing in poor conditions as well as speed of growth. We initially went in to cut down the white top to the roots, which hurts the plants. After a few weeks we go back and spray with the herbicide to hit it again, in hopes of eradication.  The next few weeks we will be doing some intense fire-rehab monitoring so I hope to learn a lot in this time.

Amber Kowal

So far working for the Bureau of Land Management in Carson City, Nevada has been an enlightening experience.  I moved out to Nevada from Illinois 2 months ago and I had never realized how mountainous Nevada was. I found out that Nevada is the single most mountainous state in the whole U.S. and prior to this experience I thought that it was all desert.  Another thing I never realized is how windy the desert is. The winds can get so bad here that they have to shut down highways for trucks and trailers because of fear of tipping over due to the forceful winds. I have started to learn the desert vegetation and I’m perfecting my monitoring skills. I think this internship is really interesting because I not only get to work with plants but have many encounters with animals as well. I have seen numerous wild horses, a rattlesnake, scorpion, bald eagles and the list goes on! I also think that this internship is such an interesting experience because all of my fellow interns that I’m working with this summer are from all over the country.

A skill that I have gained is how to determine when seeds are ready to be taken from a plant, and then collected for Seeds of Success.  I really think that the Seeds of Success program is a great program because it’s taking native plants seeds, and re-seeding them in other parts in the state. I think its unfortunate that there are so many non-native plants in the U.S. and I’m happy to be part of a program that is restoring lands here back to the native species.

I’m also in the process of taking a 24 hour GIS course that will hopefully perfect my skills with mapping. I’m really excited to start to do this because I feel these skills will make me more desirable when I look for a job in a few months.

One skill that I am perfecting while being out here is driving the 4WD vehicles. Before coming here, I have never even driven a pickup truck let alone drove in 4 wheel drive over rocks and rough terrain. I now feel confident in my abilities to drive in these desolate areas in the work trucks.

I hope by the next post I will have a lot of seeds collected!